Complaints procedure
How to make a complaint about the SIA
We do not have a complaints procedure for complaints about security staff or businesses. If you have concerns about people working in the private security industry, you can tell us about them here.
How to make your complaint
You can send your complaint to us through our contact form, by post, or through your SIA online account.
If you send your complaint through our contact form, please select “General Enquiry” as the category and “I want to make a complaint” as the topic.
To make a complaint through your SIA online account, select the ‘Help’ tab (top right), then “I have an enquiry” as the reason for contact and “I want to make a complaint” as the category. You can also upload attachments when you make a complaint using this method.
What can our complaints team help with?
You can make a complaint about anything that you think the SIA has done wrong or failed to do. This can be in connection with individual licensing or our Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS). Our explains in more detail what we will treat as a complaint.
Our complaints team will not be able to help you with an appeal against our decision to refuse, suspend, or revoke your licence. If you are unhappy with a decision we have made, you should follow the appeals process we explained when we wrote to you.
What will we do when we receive your complaint?
We will confirm that we have received your complaint within 3 working days. We will do all we can to resolve any urgent issues straight away. We may contact you to ask for more information to help us do this.
We will then investigate your complaint and provide a full response within 20 working days (4 weeks).
When we respond we will explain what went wrong and tell you what we have done to put things right. We will also tell you anything that you can do to solve the problem or stop it from happening again.
What if you do not agree with our response?
If you are not happy with the way we handle your complaint, you can ask for an internal review by a senior member of SIA staff. We will explain how to do this when we respond to your complaint.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our review, you can ask your local MP to escalate your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO).
The PHSO will only accept your case if you have already completed our complaints process.
Find the contact details for your local MP or Learn more about the PHSO.